The emergence and popularity of mobile computing have made portable electronic devices, due to their compact design and light weight, a staple in today's marketplace. Many portable electronic devices employ a clam-shell type design such as notebook computers, netbooks, tablet personal computers, and certain handheld devices. Generally, a clam-shell design consists of two housings connected together at a common end. In most cases, an upper housing is utilized to provide a viewable display to a user while a second housing includes an area for accepting user input.
On the other hand, tablet computers and similar handheld devices generally feature a single touchscreen display for both displaying images and accepting user input via a virtual onscreen keyboard for example. Convertible tablets computers are aimed to offer both the portability of a tablet computer and the enhanced functionality of standard notebook computer through some type of conversion technique. However, providing a seamless and efficient conversion method between the notebook and tablet modes has proven difficult such that either one or both modes fail to provide an authentic user experience.